A few thoughts:
1. What an awful tragedy. I am just numb. I think my mind is in protection mode because I cant even begin to fathom the pain of the victims or those close to them.
2. The guy used his mothers guns.
3. Gun rights date back to the founding of our country and it is ammendment #2. #1 covers religeon, press and speech. I think it is interesting to note what their thought process was.

deterring tyrannical government;
repelling invasion;
suppressing insurrection;
facilitating a natural right of self-defense;
participating in law enforcement;
enabling the people to organize a militia system.

Blackstone in his Commentaries alluded to this right to rebel as the natural right of resistance and self preservation, to be used only as a last resort, exercisable when "the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression".

I also think the article in the link that Duck posted was especially interesting because Harvard is an institution that I would expect to be pro gun control.

For me the second amendment is much deeper than recreation or even the day to day crime and street battles. It is related to freedom from oppression. I hope it is rarely needed for that purpose, but I would never do away with it if it gives a chance to preserve freedom. I understand that position comes at a very grim price at times. I stand with those that framed the amendment as the last hope we have when all else has failed in ending oppression.

My interpretation of history is that power and freedom are continuously challenged. I think that it's hard to imagine that it could be challenged in the US. I hope it never is, but history says someday it will. If that happens again, I hope that the right to bear arms is still around and once again by some miracle the citizens of the United States can somehow defeat an oppressive ruler(s) and their much better equipped military.

01-21-2013
I, HeavenHarris, hereby pledge to my fellow JFC'rs that I will no longer give out neg-reps. All it does is cause negative things, like fights, drama, bitching, ill will, bad feelings, etc.
Love, not hate, is the answer bros and moes.
LOL Lol breaks his pledge 5 days later hahahaha

speaking of prohibition
how many people die due to school shooting related deaths a year? a 100? 200? a 1000?
heck not even a 100 a year.

yet the alcohol related traffic deaths are around 10.000 a year.

so yeah **** gun control

01-21-2013
I, HeavenHarris, hereby pledge to my fellow JFC'rs that I will no longer give out neg-reps. All it does is cause negative things, like fights, drama, bitching, ill will, bad feelings, etc.
Love, not hate, is the answer bros and moes.
LOL Lol breaks his pledge 5 days later hahahaha

It's more often the willing statist ideologues/ zombies who are the drunks, and the shooters. But they won't admit it, and if you study their rhetoric they are trying to exorcise the demons of their own accidental mental evolutionary soup by regulating others. It's the night of the living empty heads chanting "there ought ta be a law". . . . .

after all, without top-down governance, what can you expect of people with absolute disbelief in personal self-regulation? With absolute contempt for other humans who might do things out of the ordinary fashion. . . ?

I wouldn't support legislation providing for police protection in the indoctrination camps, even if you call them schools with armed "teachers",and put mere children in them. Probably can't expect the kids to carry their own "final solution" personal protection equipment, though. I say close the camps and end the tax supported education and just replace it with private education. Private owners of schools where the parents voluntarily enroll their kids would make damn sure nobody got into the campus armed like the crazies do in the public schools. The reason? You can't sue the government for negligence, but you damn sure can sue the private educators.

Gun Control is a ridiculous debate. We should just stop making bullets or better yet, not let children under a certain age gather in large groups. Maybe only 3 kids at a time surrounding the ice cream truck. Perhaps we should pass a law that all kids should be home schooled which would eliminate school shootings with a 100% success rate. An easier way would be to identify possible future "shooters" by implementing and enforcing rigorous screening measures. Ya know, young, white, males who spend hours playing video games, surfing the net on message boards and for porn. Half this board membership would be undergoing questioning by the FBI.

There was a mass murder of 19 children under the age of 6 at a daycare in Oklahoma in 1995, before the majority of the posters on this board were out of elementary school. No guns or assault rifles were used.

There are no absolutes in life. A certain percentage of the population is crazy and will do crazy things no matter how you attempt to legislate them. As bordy pointed out, a percentage of the gun carrying police officers are just as crazy as the people they are chasing. Likewise, I would guess a large majority of those carrying concealed weapons would crap their pants if they had to actually use it in a real life situation. An intruder breaking into your house is a hell of a lot different than trying shoot somebody across a crowded food court. Everybody is a bad ass at the target the range.

Horrible crap happens. Get used to it. Luckily it only happens to a small percentage of the population. Most of us escape it, some of us don't. If you live long enough, bad stuff will happen to you or somebody you love.

The media wants you outraged. Their whole purpose in life is to make people like Thriller crap their pants and shake his "tiny fists" every time some bad happens.

Also, off topic: Anyone know why i can no longer put spaces between my sentences/paragraphs? Like when i hit enter a few times to make a gap between paragraphs then i post the reply, everything is bunched together.

Maybe this has already been discussed.
Why did a single mom living in a decent neighborhood need so much firepower.
She has more than one assault type weapon in her house and they were not safely secured.
Seems odd. A lot of questions to be answered.
What a senseless tragedy.

Sigh. This isn't about gun control. This is about sick individuals using said guns to commit crimes. There are many stories of people using knives and other weapons to kill 20+ people. Should we ban those, as well? While we're at it, just ban absolutely everything that could be used as a weapon.

Maybe this has already been discussed.
Why did a single mom living in a decent neighborhood need so much firepower.
She has more than one assault type weapon in her house and they were not safely secured.
Seems odd. A lot of questions to be answered.
What a senseless tragedy.

Yeah it is a little odd, but definitely legal.... and rightfully so.
It is a senseless tragedy, but gun control does nothing to stop these acts of violence.
The only real answer is to get rid of these gun free zones, so teachers and school officials can act fast in order to save lives.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

While we're at it, just ban absolutely everything that could be used as a weapon.

It wouldn't matter if you banned everything under the sun, unlawful individuals will always do whatever they want.
The answer is full and complete legalization of all weapons, so parents, teachers, and school officials can protect their kids and themselves from said unlawful individuals.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Yeah, as a teacher, that's why I got into this profession. To get into movie-style shootouts with random whackos.

Oh I see, makes sense.
Well you don't have to carry, but I'm sure there's plenty of other teachers that would love to.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

Yeah, as a teacher, that's why I got into this profession. To get into movie-style shootouts with random whackos.

So you actually think these gun free zones are a good idea?
Considering some of the largest mass killings in our countries history have all happened in these zones.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered." - Thomas Jefferson

So you actually think these gun free zones are a good idea?
Considering some of the largest mass killings in our countries history have all happened in these zones.

No, I actually think that the solution to a crazed madman shooting randomly in my classroom is for me to pull out a bigger, badder gun, and also start shooting randomly. Good grief, do you read what you write?

I'm a teacher. I teach. That's what I do. I don't have guns training, and I hardly think the Faculty of Teaching would provide me with any. I also don't think that even you're suggesting that I walk around with a loaded gun while teaching, so presumably I'd have to get the gun, remove the safety(unless you actually want the gun with the safety off in my drawer where the first kid who gets a chance WILL steal it), then turn it on the bad dude.

Now, at this point, the bad dude has had some time to shoot. He doesn't exactly announce himself and chivalrously allow me time to draw my gun. He's probably shot me first if he's got any sense, and he probably does as they plan these things in advance. If he somehow hasn't, he's shot some kids and created enough panic among the rest that I'm much more likely to hit a kid(you know, 30 of them, but one bad dude) than I am to hit him. He's also probably got some sort of an assault rifle, and as was the case with the Joker guy, body armour. I have a clip holding 6 bullets. Unless I am running some sort of an aim-bot, I don't like my odds. Either way, the headlines tomorrow are either "Brave teacher dies in a pointless gunfight with a madman" or "Madman shoots 6 kids. Brave teacher shoots him. Also shoots 5 kids himself."

Look, we can debate gun control and all that, but suggesting we'd be better off if absolutely everyone was armed seems like trolling.